Sacked salesman awarded $75,000

An aluminium firm sales executive whose comment to his boss that he might have to seek work elsewhere was taken as resignation has been awarded about $75,000 in lost and future wages and compensation.

Dennis Kavanagh, 62, told Auckland firm Ascot Aluminium Ltd's sales and marketing manager, Richard Gee, on March 3 that he might have to leave after Mr Gee bailed him up about a measuring mistake he had made on a job.

While he tried in the next few days to clarify that he did not want to leave, the firm adjudged he had resigned. Months of wrangling involving numerous emails and letters followed.

When he instructed an advocate to act on his behalf, he received an email from Mr Gee with the headline: "You have advised you have decided to seek legal support."

It reminded him he had resigned on March 5 and said his salary had ceased, taking into account his four weeks' notice period.

Mr Kavanagh advised he was passing the matter to the Labour Department for mediation, which Ascot rejected.

Mr Kavanagh's lawyer notified the firm of a personal grievance and advised that while Mr Kavanagh's employment was terminated on May 5, he had not been paid between April 30 and May 5.

He requested the wages, a month's notice under his employment agreement and 12 days of annual leave.

When the matter went to the Employment Relations Authority, Mr Gee accepted at a hearing that Mr Kavanagh's initial words were of dissatisfaction. ERA member Dzintra King found that Mr Kavanagh did not resign and that his job was terminated by the employer.

In April the firm had placed Mr Kavanagh on a month's garden leave, which was actually a suspension carried out without "substantive justification and without due process", Ms King said.

Mr Gee told her the dismissal was a direct result of Mr Kavanagh involving an independent adviser.

"Mr Gee asserted that at that point the company no longer had an obligation to be fair and co-operative," she said. This was incorrect and a breach of good faith.

"There were no substantive grounds justifying dismissal. There was no fair process followed."

Allegations of Mr Kavanagh's non-performance at work, denied by him, were irrelevant, she said.

"He felt extremely badly let down by the company that he had worked extremely hard for over a period of time and that he wanted to keep working for.

"He found the whole situation completely humiliating and [it] left him at probably the lowest emotional point of his life."

She ordered that Ascot pay him nine months' salary amounting to $46,800, plus income of $12,040 lost from the date of dismissal until the ERA hearing, and $15,000 in compensation for the company's actions.

There were also orders for unpaid leave to be paid, plus interest. Ascot Aluminium was also fined $2000 for breaching the Wages Protection Act.

- NZPA